1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to media storage containers and, more particularly, to a media storage container including a locking device that holds an item of recorded media to the container until the locking device is unlocked. Specifically, the present invention relates to a media storage container having a hub that receives a disk of recorded media, such as a compact disk (CD) or digital video disk (DVD), and a locking device that cooperates with the hub to prevent the disk from being removed from the hub. The storage container and locking device are particularly useful for holding an item of recorded media that is repeatedly rented.
2. Background Information
Renting items of recorded media including movies and video games has become immensely popular in recent times given the ever increasing number of items available for home viewing and use as well as the decrease in price of the machines that play the media. Typical rental stores display the items available for rental in storage containers that protect the items from dust, ultraviolet light, and damage from impact if accidentally dropped. Stores protect themselves against theft by placing one or more EAS tags on the container for the item of recorded media. An EAS tag is adapted to activate an alarm when passed through a sensing device that may be disposed around the exit of the store.
The EAS tag usually are not affixed to the item of recorded media. Knowing this, shoplifters have been known to open the storage containers in order to remove the item of recorded media from the storage container. Special storage containers have been developed that can be locked to prevent opening of the storage containers except by store clerks using special keys. Notwithstanding, determined shoplifters have found ways to open the locked storage containers, that often involves destruction of the storage container and/or container lock. To prevent this, the storage containers would need to be made of stronger materials, but this usually is cost prohibitive.
As an alternative, a locking device can be employed to hold the item of recorded media to the storage container in such a manner that when the locking device is in place, the item can only be removed by destroying the item. This is called “benefit denial” and this can function as an effective deterrent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,945 discloses a storage container for a recorded media disk wherein the disk is held on a hub within the container. A device cooperates with the hub to prevent the disk from being removed from the hub until an end user of the disk destroys the device and discards it when first removing the disk from the hub. This storage container and locking device are particularly well-suited for the retail sale of recorded media disks. However, this manner of locking the disk against removal is not well suited to the rental of recorded media disks. A store clerks or the end user would have to destroy the locking device each time a disk is rented. Then, when the disk is returned, a new locking device would have to be used to lock the disk to the storage container.
Another known storage container secures the disk by locking it through the center hole of the disk. A locking tack has a head and a projecting pin that extends through a hole in the lid of the container. The locking tack is locked by a ball clutch device included in a hub that is attached to bottom wall of the base. Such arrangement prevents opening of the storage container since the locking tack extends through the lid. While this may be advantageous, the enlarged head of the locking tack covers a portion of the outer surface of the lid which oftentimes is provided with graphics, and thus a portion of the graphics will be obscured by the head of the locking tack. Generally, such arrangement is not very attractive or aesthetically pleasing.